Thursday, 17 February 2011

Claim to Madness

Place Pignotte, AvignonWho posted two anonymous poems on the glass doors of the phone booth on Pignotte square? The author himself I assume. One of the poems is called Claim to Madness and it's not hard to think there's good reason for it; both poems are so chaotic and unpredictable I can't possibly contemplate translating them. Are they the work of a troubled mind? I am always amazed to see how rich in intriguing details the life of this city is - if only you take the time to look.

But public poetry has such great charm. It brings back two memories. In San Francisco, we saw a man sitting on a stool in front of the busy Ferry Building Marketplace with a manual portable typewriter. He had a sign saying "Poetry. Your subject, your price" and he was busy. In Santiago, Chile, a young woman approached us on the sidewalk in front of the law school. Tuition at the national university was high, she said, and she was selling little handmade books of her poetry, in Spanish and English, to raise money. Of course we bought one. We will not forget these encounters.

I focused on the telephone booth - maybe I'm missing the point. But over here, we don't have many such phone booths left. I think it could be a fun spot for taking photos of models or friends posing for the camera!Can you hear me now?